Wandering around, I bought a book "People in the Republic of China", because I am also writing a series of essays of literati in the Republic of China, and I want to gain something from this book. The author is Mr Cai Dengshan. It occurred to me at this time that Mr. Cai is a native of Taiwan Province Province, a writer and a learned scholar. The cover of the book is elegant and plain, with a gown and a standing bookcase, which looks quite modest and elegant. In my mind, Mr. Cai in Taiwan Province Province should be like this.
Later, due to the recommendation of a friend, I was able to publish my own monograph in Taiwan Province Xiuwei Publishing Company. I was accepted by Mr. Cai Dengshan, editor-in-chief of the company. I suddenly remembered the book I came across in the bookstore at that time and the elegant, elegant and dignified image.
With the personal support and care of Mr Cai, my two monographs were published in Taiwan Province Island. Naturally, I became familiar with Mr. Cai, and his image gradually became three-dimensional in my mind-more than simple modesty and elegance? Mr. Cai's erudite, realistic and rigorous academic attitude has long been famous all over the world. As a well-known filmmaker in Taiwan Province Province, Mr. Cai is not only a renowned essayist in Taiwan Province Island, but also a publisher and literary scholar spread across the Taiwan Strait. In addition, Mr. Cai's academic spirit and reverence for academics have always been admired by academic colleagues in Chinese mainland and overseas. As the son of the manager of Taipei's most famous cinema "Ambassador Theatre", Cai Dengshan seems destined to have a close relationship with movies and literature since childhood.
Cai Dengshan lived in rural Tainan when he was a child. At that time, Taiwan Province Province was still in a period of slow economic development, with a large gap between urban and rural areas and simple and boring rural life. As there are no cinemas in China, children's understanding of movies can only be realized by playing open-air movies. However, this kind of crude film facilities, rough picture and sound quality, and poor film content-that was the era of strict literary censorship, all of which naturally could not arouse the interest of young Cai Dengshan.
Therefore, he never thought that he would become attached to movies in the future.
When Cai Dengshan was admitted to Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences in Tamsui County, Taipei at the age of 18, which is today's Tamkang University, his thoughts were suddenly enlightened because of the migration from south to north and the changes from southern rural areas to northern cities. Especially in the 1960s, with the development of the famous director Li Hanxiang and the development of Taiwan Province Shaw Film Company, a large number of wonderful films such as Longmen Inn, shot by Hu Jinquan and Zhang Che, two directors of Shaw Group, were popular in Taiwan Province at that time.
It can be said that Cai Dengshan's ideal when he was young took off almost at the same time as the film industry in Taiwan Province Province. During college, Cai Dengshan was found in almost all cinemas in Taipei, such as the State Guest Theatre, the Children's Theatre and the Great World Theatre. Cai Dengshan, a college student, won't let go of both Chinese and Western movies, Chinese movies and Minnan movies. In his own words, he is almost "unable to stop".
But Danshui is a suburb of Taipei. Going to see a movie in Taipei means going to Ximending in the city center, which is not convenient for Cai Dengshan, who is studying. Fortunately, Cai Dengshan's father and friends jointly run a "Danshui Guangfu Theater" in Danshui, which mainly "receives" the films that have been shown in Taipei Grand Theatre. Watching movies in your own joint-stock cinema is naturally free. During his four years in college, Cai Dengshan has seen almost all the good movies shown in Taiwan Province Province, except some bad ones. And because of watching movies, he made friends, some in the cinema, some in his own class or dormitory, and even he planned to make a movie with a classmate named Zheng, with the intention of competing for the "Golden Spike Film Award" in Taiwan Province Province.
In my senior year, my classmates were busy looking for jobs. Cai mountaineering decided to apply for a master's degree. Like today's "graduate students", Cai Dengshan decided to choose the Department of Chinese Language and Literature as his main direction. Results Because of his long-term concern for film art, he failed in two compulsory subjects of Chinese studies, Chuci and Philology, and got the seventh place in the exam, but his tutor only received the top five.
As far as Taiwan Province Province was concerned at that time, in addition to the postgraduate entrance examination, fresh college graduates had to go to the army immediately. If they are admitted to the graduate school, they can become officers after graduation. Generally speaking, college graduates must pass the exam before they can become officers. At that time, Cai Dengshan was too confident and felt that he could be admitted to graduate school. As a result, he missed the time to take the exam as an officer. As a last resort, he had to become a soldier. At that time, being an officer, both the title and the treatment were very different. So after putting on military uniforms for each other, the students suddenly became officers. Cai Dengshan is very uncomfortable about this. "Almost all the male students in my class have been officers, but I am a private." Two years in the army is not easy. The slogan of "stand at attention at ease" every day, such as robot-like morning exercises, torments Cai Dengshan, who is romantic by nature. In his own words, "completely destroyed my ambition of graduate school and my beautiful movie dream."
Two years passed slowly in suffering and tribulation. Because Cai Dengshan did not take the teacher qualification examination after retirement, he could not teach in middle school like other students. At that time, Cai Dengshan's father had just invested in a martial arts movie with friends, and he was short of manpower, so he asked Cai Dengshan, who was unemployed at home, for help.
Watching movies is one thing, and planning movies is another. With the change of identity, Cai mountaineering is not used to it. So he started as an administrator of the film database, dealing with issues such as sending stills, putting up posters, communicating with major cinemas and advertising every day, which laid the foundation for him to become an excellent film critic and publisher in the future. Only in this way can he know every link in detail and have a deeper understanding of his own research and criticism field.
While doing these tasks, Cai Dengshan fell into thinking about the problem. He is keenly aware that publicity is extremely important for a film. Often a wonderful movie doesn't have a considerable box office, or even suffers a fiasco. The reason is that the publicity and planning team is not in place. At that time, there was no professional and large-scale planning company in Taiwan Province Province. A large number of different methods adopt the same propaganda strategy, which leads to the failure to promote the good films made by directors in Taiwan Province Province, while the good films made in Chinese mainland and Europe and America have no box office in Taiwan Province Province. Undoubtedly, compared with the Hollywood film planning team, the cultural propaganda industry in Taiwan Province Province is still very weak.
Cai Dengshan, who was born in the Chinese Department, had the idea of "deciding to set up a studio". The first person who agreed with his idea and cooperated with him was his roommate Zheng, who wanted to make movies together when they were in college. When the studio just opened, it encountered many difficulties-the biggest one was the struggle with the authorities.
At that time, in Taiwan Province Province, the film censorship system was strict, and there were very strict and even extreme management methods for the film title and content. Either the film was randomly edited, making a good film fragmented, or the film was not released at all. A good film often makes the director's hard work go up in smoke for various unwarranted reasons. Cai Dengshan is not only busy with film promotion, but also often runs between film companies and film management departments for the listing of a film.
1993, the film Piano Lesson directed by Australian female directors jane campion swept the world and won the Palme d 'Or Award at Cannes Film Festival. With the eager anticipation of Taiwan Province fans, Cai Dengshan's Chunhui Film Company bought the right to broadcast this film in Taiwan Province province. However, the authorities insisted on cutting out a scene in the movie-harvey keitel, the hero, walking the bird naked. This scene is not only just right in the film, but also plays a connecting role. Once cut, the film will be the same.
Cai Dengshan couldn't accept this unreasonable request, so he mobilized the media and social elites to argue with the unreasonable censorship department. Finally, at a hearing held by both sides, Cai Dengshan and others won by one vote, so the censorship department had to modify the film censorship clause-add a new regulation "In the future, all award-winning films in five major film festivals, such as Oscar, Cannes, Berlin, Tokyo and Venice, are allowed to be nude". After that, the film exchange in Taiwan Province Province really prospered gradually, and a large number of excellent films began to gain a foothold in Taiwan Province Province, which was bound to be inseparable from Cai Dengshan's tenacious efforts and dedication at all costs. 1993, Cai Dengshan's career reached its peak, and the film censorship department revised the film censorship clause because of him. Several films he planned and promoted also gained high reputation and good box office in Taiwan Province Island. Cai Dengshan finally proposed to the film company that he wanted to make a documentary about modern writers.
Why does he have such an idea?
In 1950s and 1960s, Taiwan Province Province adopted the method of "banning" a group of writers who stayed in the mainland-neither introducing nor studying. Therefore, a group of scholars, including Cai Dengshan, were at a loss when they were in college, especially the literature on the mainland, but the mainland never gave up the introduction and research of Taiwan Province literature. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are China people. How can you ignore history because of narrow political struggles and for your own literature?
When Cai Dengshan was in college, he felt poverty and hunger in literary research materials, so he secretly read some mainland introduction materials or materials about mainland literature through some secret channels. Although Taiwan Province provincial authorities began to lift martial law in the mainland in the late 1970s, the younger generation is still not familiar with the literature on the other side. Therefore, Cai Dengshan, as a scholar, bravely put forward a bold idea: go to the mainland to shoot literary documentaries, interview living mainland writers, and then bring them back to Taiwan Province Province to perform. This may be the best way for contemporary young people in Taiwan Province Province to better understand cross-strait literature and arouse their cultural awareness.
With the consent of the company, Cai Dengshan invited the famous director Xiang Lei to take the helm and escort his series of documentary "The Figure of the Writer". This documentary series costs NT$ 80 million and is divided into four parts. Cai Dengshan himself is a screenwriter and producer. Twelve directors were selected in the first album: Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Yu Dafu, Xu Zhimo, Zhu Ziqing, Lao She, Bing Xin and Zhu Ziqing. In addition to reading a lot of materials and conducting a lot of interviews and verification, in the past two years, the film crew has traveled all over the mainland, to Hongkong, Taiwan Province, Japan, South Korea, and then to Europe, America and Southeast Asia. All the places where the family stopped, where the story of the work took place, and the places recorded in the literature have become the targets of lens capture and hunting. At the invitation of Cai Dengshan, Xia Zhiqing, Leo Oufan Lee, Wang Dewei, Yu Guangzhong, Chen Zishan, Xu Zidong, Zhao Yuan, Qian Liqun, Chen Pingyuan, Wang Hui and other dozens of top scholars in modern and contemporary literature research at home and abroad have become invited commentators of the program, which is unprecedented in any previous literary historical materials. For this reason, Cai Dengshan proudly said: "There is absolutely no way for any university in the world to gather nearly 100 top teachers.
It is worth mentioning that, in order to make the program have stronger historical significance and literary value, Cai Dengshan also visited or wrote to Cao Yu, Ba Jin, Xia Yan, Zhang Ailing and other senior literary masters many times at his own expense, leaving precious video materials for future generations. At that time, the "three links" between the two sides of the strait failed to be realized, which shows the hardships and unimaginable hardships that had to be endured at that time. When interviewing Mr. Cao Yu, Cao Lao was moved by Cai Dengshan's persistence and enthusiasm. He accepted an interview with Cai Dengshan from his deathbed and enthusiastically praised "this kind of program with no commercial foothold is actually invested by private companies regardless of profit and loss." How can this heart say that we all have to cooperate well! "
After this program was broadcast on Taiwan Province TV station, it caused a strong response in Taiwan Province Island. Exquisite pictures, touching plots and precious historical materials have aroused the cultural consciousness and spiritual value of China people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. 1999, this film won the Golden Bell Award, the highest award of Taiwan Province Radio, Television, Culture and Education Television Station-this is not only an affirmation of Cai Dengshan's efforts for many years, but also a deep echo of cross-strait cultural exchanges. In 2006, 52-year-old Cai Dengshan became the editor-in-chief of Taiwan Province Xiuwei Publishing Company.
When it comes to Xiuwei Publishing Company, most scholars of humanities and social sciences in mainland China are full of praise and admire deeply. Indeed, at a time when "publishing at one's own expense" has become a clear rule, Xiuwei Company dares to welcome mainland scholars in humanities and social sciences to contribute in the form of payment. In just four years, under the leadership of Cai Dengshan, Xiuwei Publishing Company has gathered a large number of outstanding mainland scholars-some even top scholars, such as Chen Zishan, Rey, Xie Yong and Cheng Guangwei. Xiuwei Publishing Company provided them with a platform to publicize their academic ideas across the Taiwan Strait.
Similarly, Cai Dengshan also pays attention to a group of young scholars-gaoyu, Yi Jian, Yan Quan and other young scholars, and even post-80s scholars, who have become the authors of Xiuwei Publishing Company. It is more difficult to publish a good book under the general climate of depressed publishing industry. In contemporary times, Cai Dengshan actively seeks a way out for outstanding academic works and literary creation achievements. For example, the new mode of Xiuwei Publishing Company, BOD Publishing, is to print on demand without leaving any inventory, which not only greatly saves the printing cost, but also opens up a new world for the publishing industry, making the publication of academic works no longer very difficult because of funds and sales.
Of course, this is not just the pure purpose of Cai mountaineering. After all, Xiuwei Publishing Company still gathers a large number of outstanding Taiwan Province scholars and writers. His aim is to provide a broader and more concrete space for cross-strait cultural dialogue with the help of Xiuwei Publishing Company, a professional academic and social science publishing platform with large circulation and great influence. If the documentary "The Writer's Figure" more than ten years ago is to examine history and arouse cross-strait cultural awareness, then today, when the two sides are moving towards peace and glory, everything Cai mountaineering has done is to "live in the present" and make immeasurable contributions to cross-strait cultural exchanges in a pragmatic way.
In recent years, with the increase of cross-strait economic, trade and cultural exchanges, Cai Dengshan has traveled to and from the three places on both sides of the strait many times every year to participate in various academic seminars and cultural activities. From a carefree teenager in Tainan who dreamed of movies in those days to a well-known scholar, writer and publisher in his prime this year, Cai Dengshan has been enjoying the joy of success despite setbacks. After all, he has been making unremitting efforts for his cultural ideal. In his own words, he is just a "pusher of knowledge"-but it needs strong motivation and motivation to promote it.
And I believe that people who can promote cross-strait cultural and knowledge exchanges must have strong beliefs and energy.